A Year Gone By
by Fyrshi
Summary: It's been a year since Vorona's come to Ikebukuro, and Shizuo's intent on celebrating the eventful year that's gone by for the both of them. With trips to the local sweet-store and a new cake factory on the cards, could Shizuo and Vorona still get their fill of treats and have a good time while they're at it? [Fluff; DRRR KinkMeme Prompt; No Warnings Apply]


**_A/N: _**_I'm not good with fluff and happiness (or anything much else that is sweet in terms of writing, really) but this was just a fill that I wrote up for the DRRR Kinkmeme which I've posted onto my AO3 account for good measure as well. Um, I'm not actually sure if this is actually fluff or not, but I tried? Eh, well, in any case, I might as well stop rambling and let everyone get back to reading this then~  
__And for those that don't know... __Onigiri are oval-shaped rice balls, often wrapped in seaweed & stuffed with some sort of filling._

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of DRRR (Ryohgo Narita does) or the drawings in the cover (which were drawn by the member with the Pivix ID no. 382668); I merely added brushes to the artwork and a storyline to these characters...**

* * *

"I-I promise, I'll have the money by t-tomorrow! Just g-give me more time, okay?!"

The pathetic whining of the latest client –or, if he wanted to be more specific, _victim_– filtered through the thin walls of the apartment they were currently in, and Shizuo couldn't have been more annoyed by the quavering tone evident in the sucker's plaintive voice. If the idiot had known that they couldn't afford to borrow money off the company he worked for in the first place then what was the point in begging for more time to begin with?

His ire rose steadily as more angered thoughts shot through his mind and, by the time his sunglasses were safely tucked into his vest pocket, the murderous intent in his hazel eyes was all too clear to whoever was unfortunate enough to glance in his direction. Just as he was about to relieve the brick wall before him of the door set into its crumbling expanse, a soft hand on his shoulder momentarily diverted his attention, and he spun around to lock his incensed glare with a far calmer gaze.

"Shizuo-senpai, please desist from your anger." Despite the number of months that she had spent in Japan, Vorona's stilted accent and her strange speech mannerisms had still remained completely unchanged, though her intonations were now completely perfect. "Tanaka-senpai will take care of things. Therefore, there is no need to be angry. No problem."

The roiling emotions continued to burn behind Shizuo's sharp glower, but it soon subsided altogether when their boss emerged from the previously-threatened door with an exhausted sigh. As the taller employee shook his head and grumbled something suspiciously profane under his breath, the sole female in their motley trio spoke up once again.

"Tanaka-senpai, what is the status on the client?"

"I've given him until tomorrow afternoon to pay everything, but I found some money tucked into his pants, which he willingly gave up after he heard a rather loud growl outside." The brown-haired male smiled faintly as Shizuo huffed and shoved his hands deeper into his pockets, before he continued talking once more. "Anyhow, that's the last client for the day-"

"Really, is that all?" Vorona and Tom turned to the other man, who had somehow drawn out a cigarette between the minute it had taken for the trio to immerse themselves into society once more, and watched as he incredulously exhaled out smoke into the air. "It's not even anywhere near sunset yet."

"Well, there weren't many clients for the day, I guess…" The dreadlocked man adjusted his glasses as his voice trailed off, and added thoughtfully, "It's not all that bad, though. You guys can get an earlier break, and I'll head off back home. Besides, didn't you two say that you had to celebrate something or another?"

The faint blush on the fake blonde's cheeks and the startled blink from the Russian woman was enough of a confirmation for their employer and, with a faint chuckle, he disappeared among the thinning crowds of Ikebukuro's pedestrians.

"I'll see you all at 10 tomorrow, okay? Have fun now, and try not to get into too much trouble!"

As these words floated in the relatively silent air between the blonde pair, the two remaining members stared after their boss and only bothered to snap themselves out of their paralysis when they finally realized that they were in the middle of a rather busy crossing.

* * *

The cause of their celebration had cropped up a bit earlier, when Vorona had mentioned that she had been in Japan for nearly a year while they had been dining at Russia Sushi. To be honest, though, it had been Simon who'd brought it up at all when he set down their orders before them.

"Vorona-ojou-sama been in Japan for one year, no? Good time to celebrate stay in beautiful country." The dark-skinned man had smiled widely as he set down a free platter of sweet onigiri filled with some sort of candy, and had even chuckled quietly when he saw the blonde woman's face light up imperceptibly. "Eat Russia Sushi. Sushi good, good for celebration."

Despite the oddity of having sweets wrapped up in a dish that was usually served as a savoury one, the Russian female showed absolutely no hesitation as she picked up one of the rice balls and bit into its saccharine center. As she revelled in the burst of sugar that spread through her mouth and coursed down her throat, she was momentarily distracted from her bliss by her sole companion, who had glanced at her curiously from behind his tinted sunglasses.

"The time of arrival, it was around 362 days ago," the blonde woman casually explained, even as she reached forward for another onigiri to replace the one she'd already eaten, "and Samia remembers still. His memory is indeed powerful to recall such a situation."

"Oh, good customer, I always remember. Good customer eats frequently, comes often to try sushi-"

"Why did you come here in the first place, though?" Shizuo cut through Simon's inevitable spiel of the redeeming qualities of the sushi served in the odd restaurant, and showed a startling lack of remorse when the dark-skinned man ambled away from his position behind the counter and went back to his usual location in the streets of Ikebukuro. However, some form of remorse flickered briefly behind his eyes when his co-worker frowned momentarily, and went back to chewing on her third ball of sweetened rice.

"Ah, I'm sorry for asking about it…" The taller man mumbled as a contrite apology, but the woman beside him refused to acknowledge his statement. He scratched his head for a little while as he racked his brain for a way to alleviate the sudden expanse of silence stretching between them, and lowered his hand when he struck upon an idea.

"Hey, do you want to go eat some cake later? I could treat you to some to celebrate your year-long stay in Japan. Besides, I think there's a new confectionary store opening on the same day, too."

When her eyes had lit up and a childish smile had alighted onto her face at the mention of more free sweets, Shizuo had felt his heart stutter slightly at the pure joy radiating out of his colleague. Even though he had asked her to eat with him a number of times before, they had always had someone else tagging along –if it wasn't their boss, Tanaka-senpai, then it was either Izaya's little sisters or that Akane kid– but it seemed that, this time, he would have her all to himself.

And no matter how much he tried to tell his traitorous heart that this was, by no means, a date of any sort, the stupid organ simply fluttered all the more at her subsequent acceptance of his offer.

* * *

Shizuo couldn't suppress the faint blush that crept onto his cheeks as soon as he recalled the memory that had led to his subsequent 'date' with Vorona but, fortunately for him, it didn't seem that the Russian woman next to him was concentrating on his face at all. On the contrary, she was too busy stuffing her face with free sweet samples to care much for anything other than the sugar-filled candy in her hands. However, as soon as he noticed his colleague's actions, the taller man knew that the blush on his face was probably a rather vivid shade of pink now.

Unfortunately for him, though, it was at this particular moment that the blonde female beside him chose to turn around to give him some of her sweets.

The mortification on his face at being caught staring at his secret crush was so obvious that even a blind person could've probably seen his flustered state of mind but, strangely enough, his colleague merely gave him a dazzling gaze before she stuffed a few pink lollies into his hand. As the man's eyes widened behind his sunglasses and he happily dug into the strawberry-flavoured confectionary in his large hands, he didn't realize that he himself was being observed in turn.

Had Shizuo not been so immersed in forgetting his own embarrassment in the candy in his palms, he might've noticed the reciprocating blush that contrasted with the paleness of Vorona's cheeks. His female companion had, in fact, noticed the shy looks that her friend had given her out of the corner of her eyes, and she had been secretly glad that his attention had been completely fixated on her. Of course, she felt a little jealous towards the lollies lying in her colleague's hands, thanks to the fact that his attention was now on something other than herself, but she consoled herself with the thought that he was happily eating something that she had given him.

"Hey, Vorona…" A voice broke through her mental reverie, and she raised her icy-blue eyes to the warm ones above her in a silent query. "Well, um, I was wondering if, well…"

It was rare to see the feared Fortissimo of Ikebukuro fumbling for words, and the shorter woman couldn't help her mental chuckle at her friend's inherent cuteness.

"Do you want me to buy any of this candy for you?"

At the question, the former assassin blinked in a mixture of confusion and surprise. She hadn't expected the taller man to offer to buy anything for her, but when she saw him furrow his brow somewhat and open his mouth to say something else, she quickly gave him an affirmative reply.

"The candy, it is delicious and full of sugar." She smiled slightly, and she nearly saw puppy ears perking up on her friend's shaggy blonde head as she continued speaking. "If you do not mind, I would like to accept your offer."

"I'll go buy some for us to share then," he quickly replied, and hurried inside to fulfil his promise to her. By the time he came out, she was already looking excitedly into the bag that he carried and marvelling at the variety of candy stuffed inside the different packets.

Shizuo couldn't help himself from smiling as he gestured down the road and casually mentioned, "Hey, didn't you want to go get some cake from the shop further down?"

"Affirmative. Let us go before the sun descends, then." She answered quickly, and laced her soft fingers through his coarse ones as she tugged impatiently on his hand and moved to hurry down the road.

However, if she had looked back at that exact moment, she might've seen the bright red flush that covered her friend's embarrassed face.

* * *

"Shizuo-senpai, does the strawberry cupcake suit your preferences better than the chocolate éclair?" Vorona asked thoughtfully, even as she held a specimen of each in her hands. Everyone in the store would've only seen the Russian's seemingly blank face, but Shizuo could easily discern the hungry glint that had appeared in the other's icy blue eyes.

"We can buy both of them, if you want…" The taller blonde scratched his head sheepishly, before he brought out a coupon from his trousers pocket and mumbled, "Since I can buy one of them and get the other for free…"

Vorona was quite sure that it was both Christmas and her birthday today, especially if her luck was any indication of that fact, and the slight smile that appeared on her otherwise-expressionless face was testament to her uncontrollable ecstasy. If Shizuo had squinted close enough, he might've been able to see the flowers and sparkles that were currently floating around the woman's head, but as it was, he could already feel the waves of happiness flowing off his colleague.

"Affirmative; that would be a wonderful idea~" Vorona hummed contently, even as she placed both of the items on the counter. "The items, I can pay for–"

"Nah, I'm treating you, so you shouldn't need to pay." Shizuo cut in and, before she could even hope to raise any words of protest, he had already handed the correct amount of money to the amused cashier behind the counter.

"You two make a nice couple, you know," the cashier smiled softly, even as matching blushes spread across the pair's faces and rendered any further argument about their payment moot, "but, well, I hope the both of you will visit our humble store again. Have a nice day, dear customers!"

Although the colleagues left the shop feeling substantially more awkward than when they'd first entered, Shizuo and Vorona couldn't help glancing towards each other when the other wasn't looking and smiling softly at the happiness that they could sense on their friend's face. After all, it gave them each a particular brand of contentment to see the other's satisfaction.

Though, of course, they didn't realize that the other was just as happy as they themselves were.

* * *

The sun was just starting to dip over the horizon when Vorona and Shizuo found themselves an empty bench in the heart of Ikebukuro's park and settled down to share their sweets underneath the shade of a particularly leafy tree. Despite the fact that it was starting to get a bit cold outside, as the nights would often be during the year, the soft glow of lights in the approaching dusk and the general peace and calm in the park was enough to warm Shizuo's heart and cause a faint smile to flit across his face.

"Shizuo-senpai," his colleague's voice chirped by his side, and the blonde man cleared his errant thoughts from his mind as his eyes came to rest upon the half-eaten éclair in Vorona's hand, "the sweets, you do like them… right?"

"Y-Yeah, they're pretty good, actually." Shizuo hastily replied, though his eyes attempted to distract him with the knowledge that Vorona was rather happily sucking on her fingers for any lingering traces of the chocolate that had been previously stuck to her baked good. "Maybe we could go later in the week and buy some more, if you'd like."

"That is a good idea." Vorona nodded her head sagely as she replied, before she reached for yet another confectionary and unwrapped it with barely-disguised glee.

The formally-dressed man found himself chewing absentmindedly on his half of the strawberry cupcake as he observed his secret love interest digging into the fast-disappearing candy in their plastic bags. Honestly speaking, he'd found it great that he'd been able to spend the majority of the day in the sole company of Vorona- though he was sure that he'd seen pair of green and yellow hoodies appear in his vicinity at one point, which he had then hurriedly strode away from- but there just seemed to be something… _missing_ to his happiness.

They'd gone to stores and did things that he could pretend were only suited to official couples, but there was just one thing that was incomplete to his picture-perfect day.

When a pair of curious blue eyes suddenly made themselves known before his brown ones, Shizuo almost yelped and fell off his comfortable position on the bench, but he just managed to catch himself before he could do anything more than flinch slightly. However, when the blonde man had noticed that the other's eyes seemed to be getting closer to his own, he was almost tempted to take himself up on his previous offer and simply drop off the bench, injuries and embarrassment be damned.

"V-Vorona, what…" Shizuo piped out weakly, but his voice petered away when he felt a soft pressure alight on his lips and a questing tongue lick at the corner of his mouth. However, before he could do anything other than blink in surprise, he found his colleague's slightly pinker face at a more respectable distance than it had been mere seconds ago.

"Your lips, they had a bit of icing on them," Vorona offered up nonchalantly, though the lingering blush dusting her cheeks a faint rose colour did nothing to make her excuse any more convincing, "but they are clean now…"

"In any case," she continued, as she rose from her position beside him and allowed a smile to grace her facial features, "I suppose the evening is darkening at a rapid pace. It seems that it is time for us to depart. Farewell, Shizuo-senpai…"

As she offered the frozen male a quaint half-wave and disappeared in the direction of her apartment, Shizuo found himself touching his fingers to the slight tingling on his lips and blushed just a little more at the memory of Vorona's feather-light kiss. By the time he pulled himself together, the sun had already set and night had completely overtaken the cityscape, but all Shizuo could really focus on was how, if he had another chance, he'd invite Vorona out to buy sweets with him again.

And maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to sneak a kiss to her as well while he was at it.

* * *

_**A/N: **Eh, I hoped everyone liked this as much as I enjoyed writing it. If people would be so kind as to leave their opinion on this then that would be wonderful... but if you don't, then I hope that you enjoyed reading this story nonetheless~_

**[**Edit (2/7/14): I accidentally tagged this as 'in progress when it probably should be complete... but if I do find the time, I might write a sequel where Shizuo gets to take Vorona out on a date again. I'm sorry for anyone that was expecting another chapter, but it'll probably take a while to make it, so I'm tagging it as 'complete' for now**]**


End file.
